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Deceptive Cadence
5:26 am
Sat October 6, 2012

The MacArthur 'Genius' Bow Maker Who Makes Violins Sing

Credit Courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Over the past four decades, Benoit Rolland has made more than 1,400 bows for violins, violas and cellos.
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Originally published on Sat October 6, 2012 6:55 pm

Among the 23 recipients of the MacArthur "genius" grants this past week: an economist, a mathematician, a photographer, a neuroscientist, and a Boston-based stringed instrument bow maker.

Benoit Rolland acknowledges that the violin reigns supreme as the star of the strings, capable of fetching millions of dollars at auction. But what about the bow? "A violin with no bow is not a violin, that's clear," says Rolland.

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Author Interviews
4:59 am
Sat October 6, 2012

A Love Song To Family, New York In 'Sunlight'

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Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Credit Lisa Kennedy / Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Mark Helprin's previous books include A Soldier of the Great War, Refiner's Fire and Winter's Tale.
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Originally published on Sat October 6, 2012 6:55 pm

When we get an early glimpse of Harry Copeland, he's falling in love in an instant, with a girl he sees on the Staten Island Ferry. Her hair "trapped the sun and seemed to radiate light," he writes, "and with New York in 1947, when it brimmed with color, light, drama and a babble of voices that reminded him of the world he fought to save as a paratrooper in World War II."

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Asia
4:58 am
Sat October 6, 2012

U.S. Drones Navigate Murky Legal Path In Pakistan

Credit Massoud Hossaini / AP
An unmanned U.S. Predator drone sits on the tarmac of Kandahar military airport in southern Afghanistan in 2010. The U.S. has been using drones in Pakistan for years. The Pakistanis initially claimed the drone attacks as the work of their own military, but the strikes have become a source of friction.
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Originally published on Sat October 6, 2012 7:15 pm

The U.S. has been carrying out drone strikes in Pakistan for some eight years, but it's done so under a policy that has emerged piecemeal over that time.

"It started in 2004, when drones were really an oddity," says Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was on the State Department's policy planning staff when it all started during the Bush administration.

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Economy
4:58 am
Sat October 6, 2012

Holiday Jobs Come With Uncertainty For Workers

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Credit Ross D. Franklin / AP
Retailers expect to hire hundreds of thousands of extra holiday workers this year, but the hours can be scarce — and unpredictable.
Credit Ailsa Chang / NPR
Onieka O'Kieffe, 22, hits the streets of Midtown Manhattan to find a retail job this holiday season. She says she needs the second job because she's only getting 17 hours per week at her current job.
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Originally published on Sat October 6, 2012 6:55 pm

Retailers across the country expect to hire hundreds of thousands of extra workers this holiday season to help with the anticipated spike in sales. Retail workers who have been hustling year-round for more hours are looking at that news with a jaded eye — because the vast majority of these seasonal jobs will disappear after December, sending many of these workers back scrounging for more work.

With a 17-hour workweek, Onieka O'Kieffe is left with a lot of time on her hands. Too much time. She said she very often sleeps 12 hours a day just because she can.

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The Two-Way
4:57 am
Sat October 6, 2012

Fallout From Financial Crisis: Thousands Of Nigerian Kids Poisoned By Lead

Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Women and their children wait for medication and instructions on how to use it at the clinic in Dareta, Nigeria. Treating children with high levels of lead is a painstaking process that works only if their environment at home is free from lead.
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Originally published on Sat October 6, 2012 7:27 pm

Gold in general has great PR. It's slick, it's hip, it's bling. But in a remote corner of West Africa, it's killing children.

Lead from illegal gold mines in northwestern Nigeria has sparked what Doctors Without Borders has called the worst case of environmental lead poisoning in years.

The catastrophe is part of the fallout from the collapse of the U.S. housing market.

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